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THE  SURRENDER  OF  GEN.  JOHNSTON 
Letter  from  Gen.  Sherman 


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Co9T0.73 
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THE  SURRENDER  OP  GEN .JOHNSTON 
Letter  from  Gen.Shersan 


Hie t. Mag. 
May, 1869 


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HISTORICAL    MAGAZINE 


333 


XV.— FLOTSAM. 

CThese  scraps  have  been  picked  tip  in  various  places  and 
brought  to  this  place,  "  as  they  are,"  without  any  voucher 
for  their  correctness  and  with  no  other  object  than  to  secure- 
f  or  them  the  attention  of  our  readers. 

We  invite  discussion  concerning  each  of  them*  and  if 
any  of  them  are  incorrect  or  doubtful,  we  invite  correc- 
tions.— Editos  Historical  Magazine. 

The  Surrender  of  Gen.  Johnston.    Letteb 
from  General,  Sherman. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Tribune  : 

Sir  :  In  your  issue  of  yesterday  is  a  notice  of 
Mr.  Healy's  picture,  representing  the  interview 
between  Mr.  Lincoln,  General  Grant,  Admiral 
Porter,  and  myself,  which  repeats  substantially 
the  account  published  some  time  ago  in  Wilkes's 
Spirit  of  the  Times,  explanatory  of  that  interview, 
and  attributing  to  Mr.  Lincoln  himself  the  pater- 
nity of  the  terms  to  General  Johnston's  Army  at 
Durham,  in  April,  1865. 

I  am  glad  you  have  called  public  attention  to 
the  picture  itself,  because  I  feel  a  personal  interest 
that  Mr.  Healy  should  be  appreciated  as  one  of 
our  very  best  American  artists.  But  some  friends 
here,  think,  by  silence,  I  may  be  construed  as  will- 
ing to  throw  off  on  Mr.  Lincoln  the  odium  of 
those  terms.  If  there  be  any  odium,  which  I  doubt, 
I  surely  would  not  be  willing  that  the  least  show 
of  it  shoHld  go  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  memory,  which  I 
hold  in  too  much  veneration  to  be  stained,  by  any- 
thing done  or  said  by  me.     I  understand  that  the- 


334 


HISTORICAL      MAGAZINE. 


[May, 


substance  of  Mr.  Wilkes's  original  article  was  com- 
piled by  him,  after  a  railroad  conversation  with 
Admiral  Porter,  who  was  present  at  that  interview, 
as  represented  in  the  picture,  and  who  made  a 
note  of  the  conversation  immediately  after  we  sep- 
arated. He  would  be  more  likely  to  have  pre- 
served the  exact  words  used  on  the  occasion  than  I, 
who  made  no  notes,  then  or  since.  I  cannot  now 
even  pretend  to  recall  more  than  the  subjects 
touched  upon  by  the  several  parties  and  the  im- 
pression left  on  my  mind,  after  we  parted.  The 
interview  was  in  March,  nearly  a  month  before  the 
final  catastrophe;  and  it  was  my  part  of  the  plan 
of  operations  to  move  my  army,  reinforced  by 
Schofield,  then  at  Goldsboro',  N.  C. ,  to  Burkes- 
ville,  Va.,  when  Lee  would  have  been  forced  to 
surrender  in  Richmond.  The  true  move  left  to 
him  was  a  hasty  abandonment  of  Richmond  ;  join 
his  force  to  Johnston's  ;  and  strike  me  in  the  open 
country.  The  only  question  was  :  Could  I  sustain 
this  joint  attack  till  General  Grant  came  up  in  pur- 
suit? Mr.  Lincoln,  in  hearing  us  speak  of  a  fi- 
nal bloody  battle,  which  I  then  thought  would 
fall  on  me  near  Raleigh,  did  exclaim,  more  than 
once,  that  blood  enough  had  already  been  shed  ; 
and  he  hoped  that  the  War  would  end  without 
any  more.  We  spoke  of  what  was  to  be  done 
with  Davis,  other  party  leaders,  and  the  rebel 
army;  and  he  left  me  under  the  impression  that 
all  he  asked  of  us  was  to  dissipate  these  armies  and 
get  the  soldiers  back  to  their  homes,  anyhow — 
the  quicker  the  better — leaving  him  free  to  apply 
the  remedy  and  the  restoration  of  civil  law.  He 
(Mr.  Lincoln)  surely  left  upon  my  mind  the  im- 
pression warranted  by  Admiral  Porter's  account, 
that  he  had  long  thought  of  his  course  of  action 
when  the  rebel  Armies  were  out  of  his  way  ;  and 
that  he  wanted  to  get  civil  governments  reorgan- 
ized at  the  South,  the  quicker  the  better,  and  strict- 
ly conforming  with  our  general  system. 

I  had  been  absent  so  long  that  I  presumed,  of 
course,  that  Congress  had  enacted  all  the  laws  ne- 
cessary to  meet  the  event  of  Peace,  so  long  expect- 
ed, and  the  near  approach  of  which  must  then 
have  been  seen  by  the  most  obtuse ;  and  all  I  aim- 
ed to  do  was  to  remit  the  rebel  Army,  surrendering 
to  me,  to  the  conditions  of  the  laws  of  the  country, 
as  they  then  existed.  At  the  time  of  Johnston's 
surrender  at  Durham,  I  drew  up  the  terms  with 
my  own  hand.  Breckinridge  had  nothing  at  all 
to  do  with  them,  more  than  to  discuss  their  effect, 
and  he  knew  they  only  applied  to  the  military; 
and  he  proceeded  to  make  his  escape  from  the 
country— a  course  that  I  believe  Mr.  Lincoln  wish- 
ed that  Mr.  Davis  should  have  succeeded  in  effect- 
ing, as  well  as  all  the  other  leading  Southern  pol- 
iticians, against  whom  public  indignation  always 
turned  with  a  feeling  far  more  intense  than  against 
Generals  Lee,  Johnston,  and  other  purely  military 
men. 


I  repeat  that,  according  to  my  memory,  Mr. 
Lincoln  did  not  expressly  name  any  special  terms 
of  surrender ;  but  he  was  in  that  kindly  and  gentle 
frame  of  mind  that  would  have  induced  him  to 
approve  fully  what  I  did,  excepting,  probably,  he 
would  have  interlined  some  modifications,  such  as 
recognizing  his  several  Proclamations  antecedent, 
as  well  as  the  Laws  of  Congress,  which  would 
have  been  perfectly  right  and  acceptable  to  me 
and  to  all.parties. 

I  dislike  to  open  this  or  any  old  question,  and 
do  it  for  the  reason  stated,  viz.:  lest  I  be  constru- 
ed as  throwing  off  on  Mr.  Lincoln  what  his  friends 
think  should  be  properly  borne  by  me  alone. 

If,  in  the  original  terms,  I  had,  as  I  certainly 
meant,  included  the  Proclamations  of  the  Presi- 
dent, they  would  have  covered  the  slavery  question 
and  all  the  real  State  questions  which  caused  the 
War ;  and  had  not  Mr.  Lincoln  been  assassinated 
at  that  very  moment,  I  believe  those  "terms  " 
would  have  taken  the  usual  course  of  approval, 
modification,  or  absolute  disapproval,  and  been 
returned  to  me,  like  hundreds  of  other  official  acts, 
without  the  newspaper  clamor  and  unpleasant  con- 
troversies so  unkindly' and  unpleasantly  thrust 
upon  me  at  the  time. 

I  am  truly  yours, 

W.  T.  Sherman,  General. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  11,  1869. 


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